MATCH VERDICT: Bolton Wanderers 0 Blackburn Rovers 2 (From The Bolton News)

MATCH VERDICT: Bolton Wanderers 0 Blackburn Rovers 2

9:30am Monday 23rd November 2009

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THE season of goodwill is nearly upon us, but you won’t find much of that at the Reebok at the moment, where Gary Megson clearly has problems on his hands.

Wanderers have largely been given the benefit of the doubt in recent weeks, where the majority has reluctantly accepted a run of poor results against the top teams in the hope of an upturn of form sometime soon.

Megson said the right things in the aftermath of the 5-1 mauling at Villa Park and stayed true to his word by making four changes to his starting line up against Rovers — including only one of his six summer signings.

So what the Whites boss certainly didn’t need was the kind of uninspired and limp performance he got from the majority of those selected at the Reebok on Sunday afternoon.

Sure, Blackburn were fired up thanks to the enforced absence of Sam Allardyce, who will have lapped up what he witnessed from his armchair.

But, save for the first 30 minutes, when both sides wrestled for an advantage, there was nothing like an acceptable level of fight from the men in white.

It was a most un-Bolton performance, and it was greeted with an all-too-familiar chorus of disapproval from those in the stands.

Megson has been here before, of course, and will take strength from the fact that the players who have dug him out of a rut in the past are still around to do it again.

But the most worrying aspect of Wanderers’ latest slump is that those same trusted lieutenants are currently not living up to their end of the bargain.

Derbies against Blackburn Rovers are seldom easy on the eye, and so it proved again as both sides clashed heads in the early stages.

Matt Taylor wasted a glorious opportunity early on, after which it was left to David Dunn to provide most of the afternoon’s highlights, his performance in midfield suggesting that his solitary England cap earned seven years ago might not be his last. He fired two warning shots across Wanderers’ bows — the second of which had to be hooked off the line by Gary Cahill — before breaking through in the 33rd minute with a sublime finish.

Franco Di Santo and Jason Roberts had worked the ball into the box, and having tracked from his own penalty area, Dunn still had enough about him to curl a fine shot around Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Rather than open the game up, both sides — with near-identical footballing philosophies — continued to cancel each other out until just before the break when Taylor again found space in the box, only to head Gavin McCann’s corner narrowly wide.

El-Hadji Diouf made a rather understated return to the Reebok but might have grabbed a goal just after the break when McCann cleared his volley off the line.

Wanderers were spurred into action, of sorts, with Ricardo Gardner twice going close, so it came as some surprise that the Jamaican was then substituted for Chung-Yong Lee as Megson pondered a route back into the game.

Shortly after McCann had fulfilled his defensive duties again with another goal-line clearance from Roberts’s header, the game was sealed with a second goal, although not through any great effort on the visitors’ part.

A meaningless cross-field ball from Brett Emerton prompted Jaaskelainen to come racing out of goal, unbeknownst to the hapless Sam Ricketts, who chose to head back towards his own net.

It might have been comical in different circumstances, but unsurprisingly, Megson remained stoney-faced on the sideline.

To his credit, Jaaskelainen quickly went about making amends, bringing off two wonderful saves from Di Santo and Emerton, as Blackburn threatened to turn the match into a rout.

Like their manager resting at home, however, Rovers chose that point to put their feet up and virtually gave up pressing for a third.

Wanderers manufactured one late opportunity when substitute Ivan Klasnic got round Paul Robinson, only for Lars Jacobsen to get back on the line to clear his shot.

Most home fans had deserted the Reebok by the time Mike Dean brought a close to proceedings but those who did remain made their feelings heard in no uncertain terms.

After seemingly climbing a few ladders in September and October, Megson and Wanderers have hit nothing but snakes in the last four weeks.

The under-pressure manager might indeed have to go back to square one if he is to arrest this current slide at Craven Cottage next week where some are already speculating it might be his last roll of the dice.

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